OPINION: A massacre, one falling body at a time

Last Updated on Sunday, 29 June 2025, 9:23 by Writer

By GHK Lall

America under Richard Nixon had its notorious Saturday Night Massacre. Guyana under Bharrat Jagdeo has an ongoing massacre with a difference. It is a massacre of excruciating agony – one body falling at a time, and taking their time about it. Non-PPP bodies, that is. Guyanese wait to see, who will be the next to pull the plug, walk. In thinking of this Guyana massacre, I arrived at a strange place. Oil is thicker than blood. Oil-new, fresh and green – is richer and sweeter than any old loyalty. Even to the only family known. I elaborate.

Almost all of those who take a walk have script ready. The speeches ring out, endorsements will rise. It’s the power of oil. Oil is thicker and richer than blood. Blood ties go down the drain. Oil means money. Money comes in front of loyalty. The thrilled in the PPP will say that it is the policies of the group, the pulling power of its leaders. I lay this simple thought before all Guyanese: if another group was in power right now, held all the keys and combinations to the vault, then the same arguments would be made, the same postures taken. Policies, brightness of leaders, visions for the future. Here is a bucket of cold, soap water, which the British said best: perish the thought. Cold water has a way of bringing to the senses; while soap water, I am told, has some cleansing ingredients.

As an economic migrant from way back, I followed the trail that led to opportunity. In a sparse phrase, where there is opportunity, there is the probability of money. Who has money today by the tons? Jagdeo or Norton? Who stands guard at the gates to decide on whom to admit or to not to consider? Jagdeo or Hughes? If there is a better, simpler, neater, equation, I welcome the enlightenment. Dr. Jagdeo is a wise man. Not as wise as he thinks, or as his sycophants make him out to be, but a wise enough man, nonetheless. He has an unerring instinct for who is available, who is ready to make a move. There are some sturdy folks in Guyana to whom he will not go near. He knows where they stand, which means he knows where he stands. With them. With not necessarily crossing or endorsing. But the mere entertaining of the kind of conversations he has in mind. It is said that everyone has their price, i.e., is open to the negotiable. Whatever it is, I disagree. There are times for selfishness; there are those other times, extraordinary times, that call for self-sacrifice. Because it is the week of American Independence, what I share next is timely. Americans know about sacrifice. It is why they are kings of the world, aged, indeed, but still masters of their own destiny, and that of other people. Guyanese feature highly.

There is something else that is of supreme significance to Dr. Jagdeo. For every single member of a segment in the Guyana demographic that is successfully wooed, that citizen is worth 10 or 25 of his own kind. The sheer optics, the psychological challenge, is tempting to the point of becoming overpowering. I repeat that favorite of mine: he who has the money gets the honey. Here is another way of saying the same thing: Jagdeo has the cherries, berries, and smoothies. What can be sweeter? He may be de facto president and all that jazz, but he is also the Minister of Money. The rich finance portfolio was never relinquished, even when he was in the opposition. Just recall the then government stars who did business with him.

So, without fail, this mover or another, may actually have the courage to speak of Guyana, the people, and patriotism, as the driving forces behind their decision, their move. I salute them, prefer not to associate ulterior motives to their flights of mental experimentation. But there’s this last test, which I now lay before all Guyanese. By all Guyanese, I mean PPP, PNC, AFC, and whether jaguar or leopard, we shall see. If the PNC had money, if the PNC represented the gateway to personal opportunity, then where would the movement be? Money is power, the greatest of all aphrodisiacs; power signifies access to money. I make the point that the PNC then would have been hailed rapturously as a cathedral of all that is good for Guyana. There is an inverse relationship in these things. When there is no money, there is movement. I did, from Guyana to the USA. Where there is money, there is movement to there: from Guyana to America. Pure economics, or the irresistible lure of politics, it’s the same.

Oil means money. Money means movement. Expect more movement under whatever rationale. In one direction.